After seeing a megathread praising Mao Zedong, an actual mass killer, and a post about a guy saying “99% of westerners are 100000000000% sure they know what happened in ‘Tiny Man Square’ […] the reasons for this are complex and involve propaganda […],” I am genuinely curious what leads people to this belief system. Even if propaganda is involved when it comes to Tiananmen Square, it doesn’t change the atrocities that were/are committed everywhere else in China.
I am all for letting people believe what they want but I am lost on why one would deliberately praise any authoritarian system this hard.
Can someone please help me understand why this is such a large and prominent community? How have these ideals garnered such a following outside of China?
EDIT: Thank you to everyone who has responded! This thread has been very insightful :)
It’s the same question as how do people fall into the “liberal” mindset?
After seeing people worship enslavers and their state… These people literally enslaved millions of people and genocided millions more. And their state continues to invade and murder people around the planet… So how do seemingly rational people accept and support this violent, racist, system that’s literally destroying the planet? How can people be mad at Mao but not also every president? How do they feel complacent and self-righteous about voting for people who support genocide? The rationalizations are all over Lemmy, much more so than tankie rationalizations.
The point is that libs and tankies are basically the same thing, just worshiping a different empire. People want to feel like they’re part of some global movement, regardless of whether the movement is actually evil.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_religion
After reading through this thread, with many Marxists explaining exactly why we came to Marxism, do you still hold the view that it’s simply worship and wanting to be part of a global movement?
100% delusional worship.